🎯 PDC World Cup of Darts 2025 Preview: Hopes & The Maestro Set for Aotearoa Duty

Plus: Colonel Classic results, a special memorial tournament in Tokoroa & Canterbury Open recap.

A brand-new pairing will fly the flag for Aotearoa at the 2025 PDC World Cup of Darts, with Haupai “Hopes” Puha making his fourth appearance and Mark “The Maestro” Cleaver finally making his well-earned debut on the PDC World Cup stage.

Puha was part of the 2019 team alongside Cody Harris that reached the quarter-finals - still New Zealand’s best-ever finish at the tournament.

This year, the draw has been relatively kind. New Zealand finds itself in a three-team group alongside #16 seeds Finland and fellow non-seeded nation, Argentina. On paper, it's a winnable pool - but what is clear, in a best-of-seven-leg doubles shootout, anything can happen.

Here’s how the Black Shirts… All Darts… Sharp Blacks… Black Flights… The Flight Ferns… All Arrows… 🤔 (We need a name, suggestions?) have performed in previous PDC World Cups:

Let’s have a look at the competition in Group L:

Finland: The Seeded Threat
Finland are led by Marko Kantele, a mainstay in their national team who’s played in every World Cup since 2010, plus multiple World Championship appearances. Partnering him is Teemu Harju, who took silver at the 2022 WDF Europe Cup and has growing international experience. While the Finns have historically bowed out in the early rounds, they’ll be a tough test — especially with Kantele’s big-stage experience.

Argentina: The Unknown
Argentina’s pairing of Jesús Sálate and Víctor Guillín earned their spot by winning the South American qualifiers, defeating teams from Guyana, the Bahamas, and Costa Rica. While there’s little known about them, they’ll be out to cause an upset — and upsets are what the World Cup does best.

This is predominantly a NZ/Oceanic Darts focused Newsletter, but it feels wrong not to talk about the obvious huge favourites.

Luke out for England's Humphries & Littler!

They’re the most dominant pairing the tournament has ever seen, and if they even bring their B game, they could still walk away with the title for England.
The two Lukes' dominance in 2024/25 speaks for itself:

Luke Humphries (World No. 1: £1.87m in prize money):
• World Champion (2024)
• Matchplay Champion (2024)
• Premier League Champion (2025)
• Players Championship Finals Winner (2024)
• Masters Champion (2025)
• World Cup of Darts Champion (2024 w/Michael Smith)

Luke Littler (World No. 2: £1.3m in prize money):
• World Champion (2025)
• UK Open Champion (2025)
• Grand Slam Champion (2024)
• Premier League Champion (2024)
• World Series Finals Champion (2024)

Together, they’ve won nearly every title in the past 18 months - and it’s going to be a pleasure to watch them play together, especially if they bring their best!

However, the World Cup of Darts is known to provide some of those aforementioned big upsets. Here are a few of the notable ones:

Austria – Finalists in 2024 (Rowby-John Rodriguez & Mensur Suljović)
Austria stunned everyone by reaching the final of the 2024 PDC World Cup, knocking out big names along the way. Their chemistry and grit took them all the way, proving that strong pairings can topple even the biggest stars.

Spain – Finalists in 2010 (Antonio Alcinas & Carlos Rodriguez)
Back in the inaugural 2010 World Cup, Spain made a dream run to the final, defeating the heavily favoured England team of Phil Taylor and James Wade in the second round. One of the biggest upsets in World Cup history.

Australia – Champions in 2022 (Simon Whitlock & Damon Heta)
Australia lifted the trophy in 2022, beating Wales in the final. Their road to victory included a massive semi-final win over England and was a huge moment for the Aussie darting scene — showing how deadly a strong duo can be.

🎯 What’s on the Line?

With only one team progressing from the group, every leg is important and a defeat isn’t really an option in a group of three. This is a new pairing for NZ, if the two can click and get into their steady flow early, a place in the knockout stages could be on the cards.

The whole country will be behind Hopes and The Maestro as they look to add another chapter to New Zealand’s World Cup story!

⏰ What time will they play?

You’ll be able to catch Hopes and Cleaver early on Friday 13th June in the morning (NZ Time), likely from 9am onwards vs Finland. They are the last game of the evening.

The second game will be played depending on the result of the first game, but it will be either very Late Friday/early Saturday morning or mid morning, Saturday.

---

Other News:

🎯 Big Rig Bounces Back – Colonel Classic 2025: Friday 30th May 2025
Ben “Big Rig” Robb didn’t dwell long on the disappointment of missing out on automatic qualification for the NZ Masters — he bounced back in style, taking down the Colonel Classic at The Black Horse Hotel in Christchurch to claim the WWE-style belt, the trophy, and a $7,500 first prize.

Run by NZ darts legend Bernie Smith (The One Eighty Van Man) and the pokies-loving big gambler The Colonel, the event saw Big Rig make it three wins in a row and remain undefeated at the $20,000 prize pool tournament, edging DPNZ No.1 Jonny Tata in a 7–6 decider. JT still took home a solid $2,500 for his efforts.

Harley Kemp and John Hurring had strong Fridays with runs to the semi-finals, earning $1,250 each.

In other results:
• World Cup teammates Haupai Puha & Mark Cleaver made the Quarter-finals
• Jaymie Hilton-Jones & Todd Lintott rounded out the last 8
⭐ Nicole Regnaud was the top-performing female on the day.

Big Rig with what has to be the coolest 'championship’ the wrestling style belt!. Reigning much longer than Roman Reigns ever did!

---

🎯 Charles Uerata Open Pairs Memorial – 31st May 2025
In a tournament run by Aotearoa darts power couple Bianca Ormsby and Kani Numanga at Tokoroa Darts Association, Auckland-based pairing Tony Lee & David Adams claimed victory. They took out Hannah Ashley Cassidy & Anthony Cassidy 5–1 in the final.

Bianca was kind enough to give me a bit of background on how the tournament came to be and how she is honouring her father’s legacy:

“The tournament is my way of doing something in honour of my dad. My dad didn't necessarily play a lot of darts because he worked shifts; however, he played in a memorial tournament over in Ohaupo a few years ago and came 3rd alongside my mum, and he played men’s pairs with Kani (Numanga) at nationals when Kani’s partner couldn't make it. He used to play back in the day too. Hence why we decided to make it an Open Pairs Memorial tournament to honour the fact he played both mixed pairs and pairs...

My dad was also the type of man who loved having visitors and making sure everyone was looked after, so what better way to honour him than to host an expected 72 people? Then it changed to 80 and filled up to 90 on what would've been his 54th birthday.”

The tournament was first held last year, with the $1,000 first prize sponsored by Bianca’s mother. This year, Bianca helped fund the $1,000 top prize. In 2023, a portion of proceeds was donated to the Cancer Society Lodge in recognition of the support they provided during Charles’s final months.

For what will be an annual event, Stonefixa have committed funding for both this year and next.

“We're lucky with the connections we have and the sponsorship we have to be able to give back because that's what our dad was like — always going above and beyond for anyone.”

Only a few years ago, Bianca wasn’t even aware Tokoroa had a darts club or was playing darts. Four years ago she was simply a fill-in player. Now, she plays a key role in the darts community, serving as secretary for four different darts committees! She acknowledges how fortunate she and her team are to have the skills to bring everything together.

“This wouldn't have been possible without the support from my whānau or the values my parents — but especially my dad — instilled in me growing up.”

Great mahi Bianca, Kani, and the rest of the whānau. Looks like an awesome tournament and the perfect way to honour your father’s legacy for years to come.

---

WDF – New Zealand Darts Council

🎯 Canterbury Open 2025 – Christchurch Recap

Canterbury Open Singles – 1 June 2025
Men's Champion: Jonny Tata
Jonny Tata delivered a dominant display to claim the Canterbury Open Men’s Singles title, adding to his Canterbury Classic win earlier this year. He dropped just two legs all day, sweeping Jaymie Hilton-Jones 4–0 in the semi-final before whitewashing John Hurring 5–0 in the final. Jonny is on absolute fire right now and will be a big threat to any of the PDC boys on stage at the Masters in August!

Well done to Caleb ‘The Wag’ ‘The Great’ Hope for making the semi finals, losing 4-2 to Jonny. The former Bowles pro continues to go from strength to strength and make a name for himself in Darts NZ.

Ladies Champion: Taylor-Marsh Kahaki
Taylor-Marsh Kahaki claimed the women’s title with a 5–3 win over NZ ranked No.1 Nicole ‘The Renagade’ Regnaud in the final. Taylor rises to 34th in the WDF Women’s World Rankings, and no.4 Kiwi.

---

Canterbury Open Pairs – 2 June 2025
Mother and daughter darting duo The Regnauds ‘Renegades’ took out the ladies’ pairs, making light work of their finals opponents as they add another trophy to their already rammed family trophy cabinet (Would love a picture of that if you have one :).

Ladies Pairs Winners: Nicole Regnaud & Yolande Regnaud
Beat Jo Steed & Maria Van Eyk 4–1 in the women’s final.

On home soil, Christchurch’s own John ‘Danger’ Hurring, along with ‘Fireman Sam’ Laing, extinguished the heat of Team ‘Ghost Pepper’ (Those shirts look mean, though) in the men’s final with a comfortable win against the Kapi Mana boys.

Men’s Pairs Winners: John Hurring & Sam Laing
Defeated Scott Menzies & Craig Caldwell 5–1 in the final.

Mixed Pairs Winners: Desi Mercer & Brad Hamall
Won 5–2 over Tukino Weko & Rachel Padget in the final.

WDF Winners

🎯 Next up:

PDC World Cup of Darts 12th -15th June 2025

NZ Darts Council Nationals 15th - 20th June 2025

DPNZ Masters Qualifiers 5th-6th July 2025:

🎯 Get Your Tickets for the ANZ Premier League in Wellington, November 8th!

DP Darts are excited to be co-promoting the ANZ Premier League - and you won’t want to miss it.

Let’s sell this one out, show the Aussies up, and make sure the event returns for years to come!

Also, a small % of revenue also goes towards SplashSave and growing the game of darts in NZ.

🎟️ Scan the QR code, click here or contact us on FB if you’d like VIP and we’ll sort you out. Grab your tickets now!

---

Let me know your feedback or any ideas for content.
This is just the beginning — it will come into its own as it grows and gains readership, would love to have some suggestions. Send me your stories, tell me about your tournaments, show me your darts set-ups, darts practice, anything :) !

Send to sam@splashsave.org

The Aim of this Newsletter: to be informative, grow the game of darts in Aotearoa, raise awareness for Drowning Prevention, and to be fun!

💧💦💙 Check Out SplashSave Here! 💧💦💙